LH does do well with its LAX-FRA route - and they have the route all to themselves as there is no other airline offering nonstop service (PA/DL tried years ago when there was a hub in FRA - it did not work out very well and service was dropped). The flight does operate with good loads on a year round basis.

The coming days (weeks) are quite busy.....the Easter/Passover/Spring Holiday period increases demand dramatically with lots of lesiure pax travelling (family visits, trips home, vacations, etc) - that could be why the LH flight is so heavily booked for the coming period.

ha! add more flights when you already have a near monopoly and all of your flights are pretty much filled to capacity as it is? That's crazy.

An extra 350 seats on this route per day could easily increase supply to the point where it is greater than demand, and then they would have to drop the price and even start to lose money on the route.

As it is right now, they can charge a high premium for this flight based on a supply which probably does not quite meet demand...that is the perfect situation for an airline to be in for a route like this.

Look at what happens when an airport is served by two airlines, and one of those airlines ends service. Say, each airline had 4 flights/day to a different hub (8 flights/day total). Airline X drops out, leaving the airport with only 4 flights/day from Airline Y. Most likely, Airline Y's aircraft were not going out completely full to begin with, and now they know that there will be an excess of passengers who used to use Airline X but now have to use Airline Y, as they are the only option. So Airline Y increases their fares 10-20%, and their aircraft are now going out full or nearly full, as they are the only option now (ignoring other market factors like a closer airport and driving). They have just increased their yields drastically, without doing anything at all to increase their costs.

The business of airlines is a tricky one, and not all times outwardly logical, but hey, that's life in the big city.

LH has done well in the LAX-FRA market going back to the 80s when it, and BA were the only consistent European daily operators.

I have not seen the 2005 reports, however in 2004 LAX-FRA operated at a 87.8% LF with summer peaks in the mid 90s, and the slowest month at an impressive 83%.

Besides the route basically channeling traffic between two STAR hubs, LH has done very well selling itself amongst many ethnic communities in Southern California with its many beyond connection opportunities.

Quoting BoeingFever777 (Reply 6):
I thought they only fly (1) daily from FRA and (1) daily from MUC? You make it sound as if they fly 2-3x daily.

I was speaking in generalities. I was using a general circumstance that might happen to any airline to reason why LH shouldn't expand their flights. But, I also thought both of their daily flights went to FRA (i didn't realize they had a daily MUC flight in there), so that is another reason why that may sound like that.

Quoting AirCop (Reply 14):It just amazes me that no US based airline offers non-stop service to Europe (except for London) from LAX.

I guess that has to do with the lack of longhaul equipment, the backbone for Americaï¿½s longhaul airlines is the 767 and for some the A330 both does not have the range to fly that route nonstop.
Airlines that fly 747s and 772s mostley use them on their pacific routes.
Maybe once the 787 enters service with American carriers we will see point to point directions to more European cities, maybe LAX-BBI etc.....

It will forever be a McDonnell Douglas MD 80 , Boeing MD 80 sounds so wrong

Hey, well i have been on the flight about 8 times from FRA to LAX and the other way around and it always is packed full in C and F. Many times we were overbooked flying in C and there was no space in F so we had to go to SFO.
and yes LH makes a lot of money on this flight.

Quoting JoeCattoli (Reply 21):if you meant Aeroflot they don't have equipment to make it nonstop...

Their 767's can just make it, I do think it's non-stop, could be wrong.

Well, it's not just LH, but BA too are doing wellout of California.3X daily (non-stop) LHR-LAX during the summer
2X daily (non-stop) LHR-LAX during the Winter
and
2X daily (non-stop) LHR-SFO year round,
I believe SFO is a high premium load destination, while LAX is more economy and leisure.